This feature is where I spotlight older, recent, or upcoming releases I am looking forward to. The lists will include all genres I like to read, everything from picture books to comics, children’s lit to adult fiction!

This week: new children’s/middle grade offerings from Canadian authors and illustrators! First up is author/illustrator Frank Viva‘s Sea Change. I can’t recall where or when I first read about Sea Change, but having read Viva’s wholly inventive picture books, I was interested in seeing what the author could do in children’s literature. I have read and heard terrific praise for the Nova-Scotia set coming-of-age graphic novel, so I am really looking forward to get to it this summer! Second up is Esta Spalding’s middle grade debut Look Out for the Fitzgerald-Trouts, illustrated by Sidewalk Flowers artist Sydney Smith. I had been hearing bits and pieces about this Canadian authored and illustrated title from library colleagues, as well as reading about the title in library journals. Esta Spalding (as I learned while reading more about Look Out for the Fitzgerald-Trouts!), is an award-winning screenwriter and poet, with many credits to her name in Canadian productions. Look Out for the Fitzgerald-Trouts has such an intriguing and quirky book description; that, along with the fact that the book is illustrated by Sydney Smith (whose work is incredibly beautiful), has my hopes up high!

Sea Change by Frank Viva
Publication: May 24, 2016 by TOON Graphics

One summer can change your whole life. As soon as school lets out, Eliot’s parents send him to the very edge of the world: a fishing village in a remote part of Nova Scotia. And what does the small town of Point Aconi have to offer? Maggots, bullies and grumpy old men. But along the way, Eliot discovers much more—a hidden library, starry nights and a mysterious girl named Mary Beth. See Point Aconi through Eliot’s eyes, as he finds that this place he never wanted to visit is becoming a home he doesn’t want to leave.

Look Out for the Fitzgerald-Trouts by Esta Spalding, illus. Sydney Smith
Publication: May 10, 2016 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Kim Fitzgerald-Trout took to driving with ease–as most children would if their parents would ever let them try. She had to. After all, she and her siblings live in a car.

Meet the Fitzgerald-Trouts, a band of four loosely related children living together in a lush tropical island. They take care of themselves. They sleep in their car, bathe in the ocean, eat fish they catch and fruit they pick, and can drive anywhere they need to go–to the school, the laundromat, or the drive-in. If they put their minds to it, the Fitzgerald-Trouts can do anything. Even, they hope, find a real home.

Award-winning poet and screenwriter Esta Spalding’s exciting middle grade debut establishes a marvelous place where children fend for themselves, and adults only seem to ruin everything. This extraordinary world is brought to vibrant life by Sydney Smith, the celebrated artist behind Sidewalk Flowers.